Method of lining storage compartments



y 30; 1 57 s. G. YOUNT 62,801,018

METHOD OF LINING STORAGE COMPARTMENTS Filed Sept. 3. 1953 INVENTOR, $227 415 a. 0007 YBY Q annex/EV METHOD OF LINING STORAGE COMPARTMENTS Stanley G. Yount, San Marino, Calif.

Application September 3, 1953, Serial No. 378,357

1 Claim. (Cl. 217-3) This invention relates to a means and a method for lining interior surfaces of storage compartments, especially for vehicles used in transporting produce, food, and other goods to be shipped in commerce. In particular, this invention relates to a liner means of prefolded paper sheet material cut to a predetermined length and rolled into an easily and conveniently handled roll which may be readily unrolled and unfolded within a storage compartment for lining the surfaces thereof.

In the explanation of this invention, the liner means is illustrated as being installed in a railway boxcar. It is understood, however, that the liner means may be installed in any type of vehicle or storage compartment having upstanding walls and a floor defining storage space.

In the shipment of various goods by rail car and by truck, it has been found desirable to line the interior surfaces of said vehicles in order to prevent contamination of goods carried therein caused by entry of contaminating material from the outside of the vehicle into the storage chamber. it is also desirable to prevent contamination of such goods from waste or deposits resulting from other goods previously carried in the vehicle. Normally railway boxcars are cleaned when it becomes necessary to carry certain types of goods, such as produce, so as to prevent contamination. However, such cleaning would not prevent contamination from outside during transport because of the large number of openings and cracks in the construction of the vehicle through which contaminating particles, such as dirt, may enter.

Heretofore such storage compartments have been lined by aflixing separate strips of paper material to the walls and floor of the vehicle. Usually such a lining was installed by first afllxing a bottom horizontal strip to low- I or portions of the walls of the compartment and then applying a second separate top strip to the upper portion of the walls. The two strips were stapled or tacked to the walls. Since overlapping margins of the strips could not be drawn tightly, pockets or openings were present in such a lined wall. The floor was similarly covered with one or more strips of paper material and edge margins of the floor strips adjacent the walls were turned upwardly and then held by stapling to the walls. Again the joint formed by the bottom Wall strips and the upturned margins of the floor strips were incapable of affording a tight seal because of stretching of the paper and pockets and openings formed between the overlapping strips.

In such a prior installation, at least two men were required for lining a railcar. The roll of paper was heavy, diificult to handle, and did not dimensionably fit the wall and fioor surface to the covered. The paper was cut at corners to facilitate installation along the walls. Obviously such a prior lining installation was inefiective to provide a virtually continuous unbroken lining or seal, was time consuming and costly, and large quantities of paper were wasted.

This invention contemplates a lining means and a methatent od for lining interior surfaces of a large storage compartment, such as a railway boxcar or truck, wherein a virtually unbroken paper lining and seal is continuous from the top of the walls of the compartment to the center line of the floor thereof. The invention contemplates a liner for a boxcar which may be readily employed for lining either one-half a car or the entire car and for installing such a liner in a minimum of time and with a minimum of labor. The liner means of this invention is easy and inexpensive to manufacture.

It is therefore a primary object of this invention to disclose and provide a liner means and method for lining a transport vehicle in a minimum amount of time, with a minimum amount of labor, and with a minimum wastage of paper material.

An object of this invention is to disclose and provide a liner means for transport vehicles wherein a continuous virtually unbroken lining sheet is provided to extend between the top of the walls of the storage compartment and including the floor thereof while lying in close, virtually smooth relationship to the surfaces of the wall and the floor.

Another object of this invention is to disclose and provide a liner means for storage vehicle which is of light weight and which may be easily handled by one man.

The invention contemplates a liner means comprising a roll of sheet paper of predetermined length and width and having an intermediate panel and infolded top and bottom longitudinally extending panels which provide folded edges defining ends of said roll, one of said folded edges serving to conveniently align and guide the liner means during installation and to positively and accurately position the panels with respect to the wall and the floor.

Generally speaking, this invention contemplates a liner means wherein a prefolded, precut roll of paper sheet material, as mentioned above, may be conveniently and easily unrolled within a storage compartment of preselected size so as to afford a continuous unbroken paper lining covering surfaces of said compartment. The paper liner roll, as described above, may be easily unrolled along and against bottom portions of the walls of the compartment, one of the folded end edges of the roll being aligned with the corner formed by the wall and the floor of the vehicle. The unrolled portion of the liner roll may be temporarily secured against the walls by any suitable means, such as staples. The top infolded panel may then be upwardly unfolded into position against top portions of the Wall and permanently secured thereto. The infolded bottom panel may be downwardly unfolded so as to cover at least onehalf of the floor of the vehicle and may be secured thereto. If desired, a separate sheet of paper stock may be installed over the interior surface of the roof or ceiling of the compartment so as to provide a complete paper lining and seal for the interior of the vehicle storage compartment.

Other objects of this invention will be readily apparent from the following description of the drawings in which an exemplary embodiment of this invention is shown.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a portion of a railway boxcar, one wall of said car being broken away, illustrating the lining of the interior surfaces of the car by my novel liner means.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary transverse sectional view of a railcar having a liner means installed therein.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan view of a sheet of paper material from which the lining means of this invention is formed.

'Fig. 4.

may be of .metal.

pAs previously mentioned, thedescription of this inj venti'on'will be related to a railway boxcar.

and have walls of approximately 8 feet in height. The floor has a widthof approximately 9 feet. The interior of many railway boxcars may be ,of wood or may include wood strips and paneling. The roof of such boxcar's Normally oppositely disposed *slid ing doors are provided adjacent the center of the railcar.

Standard railway boxcars are usually'40 feet or 50 act in length The liner mean of this invention which maybe used to completely line with sheet paper in a continuous unbroken fashion interior surfaces of such a railway car may comprise a liner means or roll generally indicated at 10, Fig. 4,'of prefolded paper sheet material having an outer smooth face 11 and an inner face 12 formed by infolded longitudinally extending marginal topand bottom panels 13 and 14 respectively. The paper sheet from which roll 16 is formed may be' of any suitable paper stool; and may be glazed, waterproofed, etc.. The

width of the lining sheet when the top and bottom panels is greater than the width of manufactured paper stock rolls and strips of paper stock of suitable width may be joined together in well-known manner by gluing along overlapping longitudinal edge margins to provide the selected width. 7

The-lining sheet of preselected width so formed may be reduced in overall width for handling by infolding the top and bottom marginal panels 13 and 14 along parallel fold lines 15 and 16 respectively (Fig; 3); Au intermediate longitudinally extending panel 17 is defined by said fold lines 15 and 16, the outer face of panel 17 forming the outer face 11 of the liner roll 10. The fold line 16 which defines the bottom folded edge 18 of roll 16 is spaced inwardly from the adjacent longitudinal edge of the bottom panel 12 a selecteddistance so that the bottom panel 12 will have a uniform width at least equal to one-half the width of the railcar floor. The fold line 15 is spaced inwardly from the adjacent longitudinal edge of panel 13 so that the width of panel 13 and intermediate panel 17 will be equivalent to the height of the interior surfaces of a wall of a railcar.

The panels 13 and 14 may be infolded in any Wellknown manner. Preferably the wider bottom panel 14 is infolded first so that the top infolded panel 13 may overlie longitudinal edge portions of panel 14. A lining sheet paper so infolded may then be cut to preselected length and rolled into the form shown in Fig. 4 with the folded panels disposed within the roll. The predetermined length 'of the panel is equivalent to the peripheral distance measured around the interior wall surfaces of a railway car. 7 A

A liner means 10 of predetermined width and length folded, as illustrated in Fig. 4, and rolled into a reason- 7 may be folded with panels of different width so as to vary said height if desired or to provide panels for covering walls and floor'of different height and width.

The method of installation of a liner roll 10 as described above is conveniently and easily accomplished by 'rolled portion against the railcar'wall.

4 7 one man. The installer may place a roll 10 with its free end portion adjacent to and aligned with one of the door jambs of the door through which the railcar is to be loaded. The bottom folded edge 18 of the liner roll is positioned snugly into the corner formed by the side wall' and floor of the railcar. The installer may then readily unroll the liner roll along the wall while maintaining the bottom folded edge 18 tightly in said corner. As the 'foldedlining sheet is unrolled, the installer may initially staple, as by a stapling gun, the folded un- The'staples are preferably applied to the top margins of the folded, un rolled portion. The smooth outer face 11 of the intermediate panel 17 lies flat against the wall without sagging because of the initial holding staples and because of the selfstanding upright roll movably positioned adjacent the wall. The liner roll is unrolled in this manner for its entire length along the Walls of the car until theroll reaches the door jamb opposite the starting door jamb.

After unrolling and temporarily securing the roll, as above described, the installer then unfolds the roll by first upwardly unfolding top panel 13 and permanently staples the panel 13 to the walls of the car. The panel 13 is progressively unfolded around the entire interior periphery of the car and is permanently secured in place by stapling. After top panel 13 is secured, the floor panel 14 may be unfolded downwardly so as to cover at least one-half of the floor of the car.

in the floor panel may be conveniently tucked underneath the portion of the floor panel extending from the side wall so as to prevent tearing or damaging of the liner. At' the .door opposite to the loading door from which the unrolling was begun, the liner roll may completely cover said door so as to provide a complete continuouspaper liner covering the opposed door opening. After loading of the car has been accomplished,.the remaining lining material left in the roll adjacentthe loading door car may be unrolled so as to cover the loading door opening.

The remaining portion of the floor panel may be unfolded and secured to the floor While the top and intermediate paneLmay be first stapled from the inside, leaving only a small opening through which the installer may leave the car. The end portion may then be secured by stapling from the outside of the door. Sealing tape may be applied along the vertical joint formed by adjacent end portions of the lining sheet. The walls and floor of the car are thus lined with a vertically continuous unbroken sheet of paper.

In the event a ceiling liner is desired, a sheet of paper 22may beinstalled so as to cover the ceiling and so as to overlap top margins of the walls of the linermeans 10. The sheet of paper 22 may be of a preselected width and length for the particular car in which it is to be installed, the width being suflicient to provide depending side margins 23 which overlap edge margins of the top panel 13. The sheet 22 may be supported along its longitudinal center line by a suitable length of wire 24- which may. be drawn tightly between the end walls of the railcar and which serves to prevent excess sag of sheet 22. The depending margins 23 may be stapled to theside walls of the car in such a manner as to substantially stretch the sheet 22 transversely of the car.

It will thus be readily understood that the liner roll means It) provides a rolled and folded paper unit of light weight which may be readily and conveniently handled As illustrated, after the floor panel 14 has been completely. unfolded,

so as to line the interior of a railcar or truck or any other compartment for storage of material. The prefolded liner sheet of predetermined width and length aifords a means which may be conveniently unrolled into proper position against walls of a compartment and which may be conveniently unfolded and installed by one person in a simple manner. The method of installing the liner roll 10 is simple and direct and facilitates installation of the liner in smooth relationship with respect to the walls and floor of the car. There is virtually no wasting of paper stock in the installation of this invention. The liner means may be precut for use in only one end of a boxcar if so desired, or it may be readily cut during installation. Sufiicient material may be included so as to extend the liner across the car to cover the goods stored in the end of the boxcar.

All changes and modifications coming within the scope of the appended claim embraced thereby.

I claim:

A method of continuously unbrokenly lining interior wall and floor surfaces of a storage compartment with a precut single roll of unitary sheet material having inwardly folded panels including a folded guide edge, comprising the steps of: positioning said single roll of sheet materal in upright position with one end of said guide edge at the juncture of a wall and floor of a compartment to be lined; unrolling substantially the entire upright roll along said wall while aligning the guide edge with said juncture of Wall and floor; simultaneously securing along the edge opposite to the guide edge the unrolled, unfolded portion of the roll against said wall as the roll is unrolled; unfolding upwardly an infolded panel and securing said panel throughout its length to said wall, and then unfolding downwardly an upstanding infolded panel to cover said floor and securing said panel to the floor.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,527,080 Ringel Feb. 17, 1925 1,678,356 Rowe July 24, 1928 1,803,617 Hummel May 5, 1931 2,068,167 Dwight Jan. 19, 1937 2,553,923 Lambert May 2, 1951 

